Wolf in the Shadows by Marcia Muller Read Free Book Online Page B

movies—that relinquishing any would practically turn me into a saint.
    There was nothing much of interest in the paper; it even felt thin. The comics weren’t funny, the crossword and the Jumble
     were all too easy; in desperation I even read the business section, but the lead article on the unexpected withdrawal of an
     initial public offering of Phoenix Labs stock failed to stir me. Finally it was nine o’clock, time to make my call.
    I dialed the number of one of the city’s larger security firms and asked to speak to Bob Stern, my former boss. Bob, who has
     changed companies about once every nine months since I worked for him, saved me from a hideous life by firing me several years
     ago, and has spent most of the intervening time trying to hire me back for whatever outfit he’s hooked up with at the moment.
     I have a certain reputation in investigative circles here in the city, and while the consensus is that I’d be impossible to
     work with, a number of people would like to give it a whirl.
    “So what is it, Sharon?” Bob asked. “You ready to come back to me?”
    “No way.”
    “You’re not going to lure another of my promising new operatives away, are you?” Rae had worked briefly for Bob at one of
     his former gigs, before he sensed she’d be fully as difficult as I and recommended her for the job at All Souls.
    “Not today.” But as I spoke I reminded myself that soon I might have to call on Bob for referrals, should I say yes to All
     Souls’s offer. Quickly I put the troublesome thought out of my mind and said, “I’m after information. What can you tell me
     about Renshaw and Kessell International?”
    “RKI? Shit, Sharon, don’t tell me you’re thinking of hiring on with that bunch!”
    “Why is it you always suspect me of looking to change jobs? I’ve been with All Souls ever since you tossed me out on the streets.”
    “Those bleeding hearts aren’t good enough for you. Come back to me. I promise—”
    “RKI, Bob.”
    “Right. You know Ackerman and Palumbo? Paul Chamberlain? The big guys in the international security consulting field?”
    So I’d remembered correctly. “Yes.”
    “Well, RKI’s right up there with them, but that’s where the resemblance stops. A and P are mainly former spooks. At PC you
     got the guys with law or accounting degrees and nice suits. RKI uses both, but it’s the other types that make them flashy—and
     dangerous.”
    “Other types.”
    “Yeah, people whose past you really don’t want to know too much about. People who don’t play by anybody’s rules. They’re what
     makes RKI so effective in certain kinds of situations. Firms that’re desperate or very vulnerable use them. Insurance companies—well,
     they’re leery.”
    It sounded like a place where Hy would feel right at home. “So who’re the principals there? What’re their backgrounds?”
    “Strictly off-the-wall. Take Gage Renshaw. DEA, years back. Was tapped for a very select and low-profile task force called
     Centac in the mid-seventies. Then in eighty-five Centac was disbanded. Renshaw was in Thailand; he disappeared. Three years
     later he resurfaced, came back to the States, apparently affluent. Set up the RKI shop in La Jolla in partnership with his
     old pal Dan Kessell.”
    “So La Jolla is where they’re headquartered?”
    “With offices in major U.S. and foreign cities.”
    “That’s pretty impressive growth in not much more than five years.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t guarantee that some of the offices aren’t just mail drops, but it looks impressive as hell.”
    “This Dan Kessell,” I said, “what about him?”
    “Kessell’s background is harder to pin down. Special Forces in ’Nam, that much I know. Renshaw’s their front man— gives interviews
     to the
Wall Street Journal
; you’ve seen that kind of stuff. Kessell stays out of the public eye.”
    “And he’s an old friend of Renshaw’s from where?”
    “They went to high school together in